Mental Health

Low self-esteem is the major cause of negative thinking. Negative thinking can lower your self esteem even further creating a vicious cycle where you’re constantly feeling bad about yourself. But the good news is that you don’t have to stay in this rut. You can overcome the vicious cycle of negative thinking and low self esteem. When you’re able to overcome negative thinking, your self esteem will naturally improve. You’ll boost your self confidence and feel far more optimistic about your life, no matter what you might be going through.

If you’re ready to break the cycle of negativity, you need to understand these essential truths.

Actions follow thoughts

Your actions always begin with your thoughts. If you think you’re hopelessly overweight and destined to stay that way, then it doesn’t matter how many diet books you buy or blogs you read, you’re still going to struggle. The fact is that you’ll stay overweight because you haven’t changed your mindset.

If you want to change something in your life, you’ll have to change your thoughts first. Instead of thinking that you’re destined to be overweight, work on changing your thinking. Try saying to yourself that you’re in control of what you eat and how much. Doing this changes the story you’re telling yourself. You just went from the victim in this story to the victor.

Change Your Mental Outlook

You are the only one with the power to change your mental soundtrack. Just because you have some negative thoughts doesn’t mean you have to listen to them. You alone have the power to change your focus. Instead of concentrating on the terrible day you had, start thinking about a simple pleasure – a serendipity – that you’ve been anticipating like getting to change into your yoga pants or flannel pants tonight or hearing your son’s laughter during a silly bedtime game. By focusing on what’s positive, you’re teaching yourself to let go of negative thoughts.

Remember Garbage In, Garbage Out

It’s hard to stay positive if you’re constantly consuming negative information. Watch your social media consumption. If you really want to change your negative self-talk, then you have to focus on consuming good stuff. You want to read and watch content that lifts you up. Not only will you feel better, you’ll notice that your self-talk is more optimistic when you focus on the good.

Practice positive affirmations

What you say about yourself will become your truth. That’s why it’s really helpful to practice positive affirmations every day. Begin by looking in the mirror and telling yourself something like “I’m in charge of how I feel today and I choose happiness.” When you speak these positive affirmations out loud, they’ll begin to affect how you talk to yourself and how you live out your life.

Everyone struggles with negative thinking at some point in their life. The important thing to remember is not to beat yourself up when you’re in a mental rut. Accept that you had a negative thought, then just push it away and replace it with a positive one.

If you’re a person who struggles with a consistent negative mindset, don’t worry…you can turn that around with some intention. There are lots of ways that you can do this but one of the best things you can do is to fill your mind with uplifting content. Positive podcasts are a great way to improve your mindset and get yourself out of a slump.

Mindset is how you perceive the world, yourself, and the circumstances around you and how you let it impact you. Whether positive or negative, your mindset affects every aspect of your life. If you have a negative mindset, you’ll experience a host of negative side effects in your life. But if your mindset if mostly positive, you’re more likely to experience positive effects in your life.

The following podcasts will help to help challenge the way you think and start living more positively. If you live with chronic illness like I do, you probably have a lot of down time and that can get pretty depressing. But you can use this time to boost your mindset, even if you’re stuck in bed. You can also make the time to listen to positive podcasts when you’re driving, in the car line, in the doctor’s office, or when you’re resting. Be intentional about it and you’ll be surprised at how much time you can make to improve your mindset!

5 Positive Podcasts to Improve Your Mindset

The Brendon Show with Brendon Burchard

Brendon Burchard is a motivational speaker and coach. He founded both the High Performance Academy and Experts Academy. He’s also the author of several best-selling books including High Performance Habits and The Motivation Manifesto.

In 2014, he launched a podcast called The Charged Life but later changed the name to The Brendon Show. His episodes focus on what he’s learning and doing in his own life as well as tips on motivation, personal development, and more.

Tiny Leaps, Big Changes with Gregg Clunis

Gregg Clunis is an entrepreneur and coach living in New York City. He became interested in personal development when he was a teenager and began reading books on the topic. In 2015, he launched his podcast Tiny Leaps, Big Changes where he talks about wellness, motivation, and personal growth strategies. Many of his episodes are short, ranging from just a few minutes to forty minutes. So grab a few minutes when you can and listen to Gregg!

Best quote: “All big changes come from the tiny leaps you take every day.”

The Daily Boost with Scott Smith

Scott Smith spent many years working on a radio station, encouraging others. Then he discovered podcasting and decided to start motivating people online. His podcast The Daily Boost became the world’s most popular daily motivation podcast. It quickly became a full-time business that he feels blessed to run. Scott has an engaging style and a soothing voice. Every Monday, he delivers a new edition of The Daily Boost. Each episode is under 15 minutes, so they’re easy to listen to even if you’re on the go.

Bulletproof Radio with Dave Asprey

Do you love bulletproof coffee? I do! The creator of bulletproof coffee, Dave Asprey is a powerhouse entrepreneur and author. He started and several successful companies before he created Bulletproof Coffee, a type of coffee drink that’s flavored with butter and/or coconut oil that’s hugely popular in the keto world. Dave then went on to launch Bulletproof Radio. His podcast focuses on “biohacking” or improving your own health through smart nutrition, mindset, and biochemistry.

The Lively Show with Jess Lively

Jess Lively is an entrepreneur who launched her first business as a teenager. She created and sold her own jewelry for years before becoming a business coach and helping other entrepreneurs. In 2014, she launched The Lively Show, a weekly podcast. On the show, she covers many topics like parenting, blogging, business, and more. But the overall theme of the episodes is living intentionally and being mindful.

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin is an author living in New York City. When she’s not busy writing, Gretchen is podcasting. Her show is called Happier with Gretchen Rubin and it features her sister as her co-host. Together, the two inspiring women have fascinating conversations about habits, happiness, and human nature.

You can improve your mindset and experience true personal growth by filling your mind with inspiration from positive podcasts every day!

Do you recharge yourself as diligently as you recharge your phone? If you’re a go getter who gives 110% to everything that you do, here’s a gentle reminder that not only should you work hard, but also play hard. It’s vitally important to create balance in your life.

It’s perfectly okay to work hard and then play hard. (If that means sleep all day to you…go for it!) You’ve earned this time to unwind and recharge yourself however you see fit. Don’t feel guilty about taking this time out, especially if it’s been a hard day, week or month. You must take that time out to unplug from everything and recharge yourself.
Recharging is exactly what this is about. No matter how positive you might be feeling in the morning, hours of dealing with negativity, stress and constant demands can leave you feeling completely drained…sometimes even by noon!

There are lots of ways to recharge yourself. If you like to work hard, you might want to play just as hard. Losing yourself in some healthy fun is a great way to give yourself a mental boost. But if you recharge best by sitting on the beach, sleeping in or taking a really long nap, then go for it. If you’re overdue for a vacation, plan one that’s relaxing with no agenda and no obligation.

Scheduling or taking some time away from work reminds you why you’re working so hard in the first place. We all want to be able to enjoy the fun things with our loved ones. After a fun vacation or even just a day out and about doing things with your family, you’ll be reminded of this truth and will be that much more motivated to keep working hard and providing for your loved ones. Now, being able to go on a great trip or buy a fun new toy like some new athletic equipment is another great motivator to keep working hard and bringing the money in when you’re not busy playing hard.

Playing is actually good for the brain. So is taking a break from the day to day responsibilities of work and home. It allows your brain to wander and mull things over in your subconscious. So don’t be surprised to come back from a few days of play and vacation and find that you’ve come up with a great solution for that problem that’s been bugging you.

Taking some time to recharge yourself will help you to refocus and renew your priorities.

You’ve probably noticed that coloring books is a thing right now, and an extremely popular one at that. To me, coloring seems like the perfect antidote to our stressed digital lives. It takes us back to a simpler time. There are many health and psychological benefits of coloring.

When I was a kid, my favorite thing to do was hide away in my room and sketch and draw for hours. With no digital distractions, it was easy to get lost in it. But as I grew older, I grew dissatisfied with my work and never felt like it was good enough. To make things worse, I tried to get into an specialized art school but didn’t make it, and I stopped after that. However in my midlife years, I’ve begun to take it up again.

Mindful coloring is really a very simple concept. It is the art of coloring while practicing mindfulness. Being mindful is all about being in the moment, being engaged and involved in what’s going on around you. Unfortunately, mindfulness has become a lost art in our day with the ubitquous presence of cell phones along with social media and a 24 hour news cycle. We sadly miss out on the basic pleasures and simple joys of life because we’re so busy multitasking.

Adult coloring is a great way to bring back some of those simple pleasures.

How is Coloring Mindful?

Mindful coloring is great for stress reduction. Think about it..when you’re busy coloring, you’re just doing one thing. More than likely, you just want to focus on coloring and not check your phone, do housework or watch TV. As you focus on one thing, you’ll clear your mind of everything as you pick colors and focus on what you’re doing.

Mindful Coloring Can Be A Teaching Tool

The simple act of coloring can teach your to create better habits in other parts of your life. Mindful coloring allows you to learn to clear the junk out of your mind and focus on the task at hand, the act of coloring. And as you learn to focus and be mindful while coloring, you’ll learn beneficial tool to practice mindfulness in every area of your life.

Mindful Coloring Relieves Stress

One of the biggest benefits of mindful coloring is the way it relaxes you. You’re no longer focused on all the things that overwhelm and worry you. You’re focusing on something simple and childlike and it greatly reduces whatever’s troubling you. One of the big reasons for the popularity of coloring books is that it’s a great way to calm down and find focus.

Coloring is beneficial for anyone. It isn’t just for kids! Once you realize how beneficial mindful coloring is, you’ll return to it for stress relief, as a creative outlet and simple meditation. Coloring can be a great part of your self care toolbox, but if you live with serious mood disorders, please seek the help of a competent professional.

With so much going on in the world, many of us feel we have a responsibility to stay up to date on world events that can potentially impact our families. But consuming a steady stream of sensationalized headlines and political conflicts can leave us feeling overwhelmed with social media overload.

Sometimes I find myself missing the “old days” when we read the newspaper in the morning and just watched the evening news later in the day. Now there’s a 24 hour news cycle of news stories, headlines and images that are carefully designed to make us react.

The next time you’re consuming media content, whether you’re scrolling through your Facebook feed or watching the news, be aware of how each story is impacting you. What kinds of stories are you drawn to? Now think about what impact they’re having on you. Do you feel discouraged or depressed after you close the browser tab?

Social networks are the business model of the attention economy. They are wholly dependent on eyeballs and clicks to make all of their revenue. To do this, they design algorithms that show you the most interesting and attention-grabbing information available in your social network. If your newsfeed was full of the boring and drab day-to-day stuff, you’d stop looking at it. So instead, Facebook shows you the most extreme occurrences in your social network for the simple reason that the extreme events draw the most attention.

This has drastic effects not only on our perceptions of society as a whole, but also on how we perceive our personal lives.

For me, social media used positively can be a good thing but I’m learning how to implement boundaries. As a special needs mom with chronic illness and a woman in recovery, it’s easy for me to feel isolated at times and social media offers a great place to connect with old friends and those who share my interests. Not only that, but it helps me to stay current with disability advocacy issues. But when I find myself using it to procrastinate about other things that I really should be doing, numb out or if I feel depressed after getting online, it’s time to reevaluate how I’m using it.

Learning how to practice mindfulness in my social media consumption has been really helpful. I’ve learned how to implement boundaries. For example, in 2008 when I first got my Facebook account, I got into a few stupid arguments that placed a strain on real life relationships. I don’t always want to know my friends’ political leanings but I’ve had to learn to live and let live. I very rarely comment on public threads or memes that I know are designed to provoke. I hide people from the news feed who constantly post stories that are triggering. I do try to stay informed on what’s important but don’t get sucked into everything.

How to Avoid Social Media Overload

1. Schedule Time for Social Media. Don’t check social media on autopilot. Create a plan that gives you certain times and days that you to check in on social media. If you don’t want to get sucked into the abyss, it’s really important to set boundaries.
2. Use Automation Wisely. If you’re a business owner and need to get on social media daily, learn how to automate social media tasks. You can automate post scheduling so you don’t have to do that every single day.
3. Focus on What Matters Most. If you’re a blogger or online business owner, when it comes to doing tasks on social media, money-making tasks should come first, then relationship building, then personal activities. If you focus on just whatever is in front of you when you check your social media, you’ll get sucked in. Develop a plan of attack.
4. Outsource. Find someone to help you with social media if youíre using it for business. There are many social media managers who are good at helping you do the job properly. If that’s not your main money-making activity, let someone else do it. (Shameless promo: I’m a virtual assistant and can help you lighten your social media load. Learn more here!)
5. Use the Right Tools. Sproutsocial.com, Hootsuite.com and similar tools can help you manage your social media, keeping you from being overloaded by information that doesn’t matter to you. Social aggregators can put all the information in one spot for you, making your tasks much faster.
6. Turn Off Notifications. There must be parts of your day where social media doesn’t come into play. When you’re in a meeting, when you’re with your family, when you’re out with friends; when you’re driving, or when you’re in the bathroom. These are just a few examples, but you get the idea. Just turn it off!
7. Avoid Multitasking. Sometimes when you try to do too much at once, you end up sucked into the social media black hole because your brain is trying to get a break. Instead, when you’re on social media, only do the social media that you’ve planned.
8. Be honest. Many times being busy feels good. It feels like you’re doing something and accomplishing something. But, the truth is, not all activities that make you busy are productive.It’s important that you develop the ability to be honest with yourself about why you’re really on the phone.
9. Practice Mindfulness. Whereever you are and whomever you’re with, be fully present with them. Practice the presence instead of being distracted by your phone. And when you do get online, take note of how you’re feeling first. If you’re already feeling stressed, anxious or depressed, it’s probably a good idea to do something else for awhile..something physical and tangible like going for a walk, journaling to get out of your head. If you’re looking to numb yourself, remember than social media can be abused just like any other substance like alcohol or food. And when you’re using it for the wrong reasons, chances are you’ll feel even worse afterwards.

I hope these practical suggestions help you to be more mindful about online activity and avoid social media overload.